Mikulski Equates Continued Funding For Iraq Occupation With Supporting The Troops

By HALLIE C. FALQUET, Capital News Service

WASHINGTON - Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski took to the Senate floor Thursday to respond to anti-war activists who occupied her Capitol Hill office in protest three times in four weeks, saying she will continue to vote for war funding in order to support the troops.

"You can sit-in every single day. You can follow me throughout my Senate career. You can follow me to my grave," Mikulski shouted at the conclusion of her speech on a supplemental funding request pending in Congress.

"I will not vote to, in any way, harm the men and women in the U.S. military, nor will I cut off the support to their families...I'm going to support this (Democratic Leader Harry) Reid resolution."

While the bill provides money to support President Bush's proposed troop surge, it also funds tools, such as body armor, and health care for when the troops return home.

"All the good things in the bill we absolutely agree with, (but) you don't need to keep funding active combat to keep funding those things," said frustrated protester Gordon Clark in response to Mikulski's speech. "This is ridiculous...(we're) definitely planning to come back."

The group of about 20 protesters contend that even though Mikulski voted against the war in 2002, and continues to speak out for troop withdrawal, the only actions that will end their sit-ins are a "no" vote on the supplemental bill, or the inclusion of an amendment to bring the troops home by December 2007, Clark said.

The supplemental budget bill sets a deadline for troop withdrawal of March 31, 2008.

During the protests in her office, Mikulski, a former activist herself, allowed her constituents to stay and read the names of deceased Maryland soldiers and tape their pictures on the wall, as long as they respected her office staff and the rules of the Senate office building during the three protests staged on Feb. 15, Feb. 27 and March 13.

Four protesters defied the latter request when they refused to leave the office at the 6 p.m. closing time on Feb. 27 and were subsequently arrested by Capitol Hill police for unlawful entry.

Protesters also visited the offices of Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Kensington, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as part of a national movement, Voices for Creative Nonviolence's Occupation Project that began Feb. 5 with talks on the emergency supplemental bill.

"We are on your side," Mikulski said to the "well-intentioned liberal activists," but "I can't vote against" the supplemental funding bill.

Excerpts from Senator Mikulski's floor speech:

"It is time for our troops to come home. And it's time for us to bring
them home swiftly. But we have a moral obligation and a constitutional
obligation to bring them home safely. This is why I support the Reid
resolution.

"This resolution states clearly that the Congress and the American
people support our troops. Yet, at the same time, we're saying 'bring
the troops home by March 31, 2008.' Unlike the reckless incompetency
that got us into the war, we're following the guidelines of the Iraq
Study Group - wise heads who pondered what were some of the best new
ways to go forward. So the Reid resolution sets a framework and a
timeline about what needs to be done, yet it assures our troops that we
honor their service and we're going to protect them on the battlefield.
We're going to make sure they have the resources to do the job, and when
they come back home we want to be sure that they have health care, and
that they have jobs, and that they have job training.

"Now I'm not new to this position on the war. I never wanted to go to
war in the first place - not because I'm a pacifist, though I respect
those that are. But I read that national intelligence report. I'm on
the Intelligence Committee. I really had very grave suspicions about
the level of weapons of mass destruction Saddam had. But I also
believed it was the U.N.'s job to go there and to do the work that the
U.N. was supposed to do. I opposed giving the President unilateral
authority to engage in a preemptive attack. I said the U.S. had to
exhaust our diplomatic options and I encouraged the administration at
that time to 'please, stick with the U.N.,' so that the U.N. could meet
its responsibility to deal with the Saddam threat. I said we shouldn't
go on our own and we should work with the U.N. and the international
community.

"The day of the vote in 2002, when I spoke, I said I didn't know what
lied ahead. I didn't know if our troops would be greeted with flowers
or with land mines. Well, now you go to Walter Reed, you go to Naval
Bethesda, you talk to the troops coming home from Iraq. We know what we
got. When we got there, there were no weapons of mass destruction, but
destruction sure happened. We can't ask more of our troops. After four
years of fighting, are we better off in Iraq?

"Well, the United States went to war with Iraq. Now we're at war within
Iraq. Saddam is gone, we're still there, and now we're in a civil war.
And it's time for us to come home. And it's time for us to come home
following the Iraq Study Group. We need a new way forward in Iraq. The
Iraq Study Group gave us 79 recommendations, surely we could agree on
50. If the administration wasn't being so isolated and so rigid, they
would know that it is time to engage the international community, that
it is always better to send in the diplomats before you send in the
troops. Let's send in the diplomats so that we can bring our troops
back home. The Iraq Study Group calls for enhanced diplomatic and
political efforts in Iraq and outside of Iraq. It provides a direction
for the U.S. and Iraqi governments to follow that would bring our forces
home by the first quarter of 2008. That's what the Reid resolution
calls for.

"The Reid resolution sets a goal of bringing all U.S. combat forces home
by March 31, 2008, except for limited numbers of troops for force
protection, training of Iraqi troops and targeted counterterrorism
operations. It would begin a phased redeployment within four months
after the passage of this legislation. But it also develops a
comprehensive diplomatic, political and economic strategy. And finally,
this resolution requires the President to report to Congress within 60
days.

"I support the Reid resolution because I believe what the Iraq Study
Group said - that the Iraq problems cannot now be solved with a military
solution, no matter how brave, no matter how smart. It requires a
political solution by the Iraqis and a diplomatic solution with Iraq's
neighbors. It says that the Congress and the American people will also
support the troops.

"I want this war to end, and I believe this Reid resolution will do
that. Yet, in ending the war, it's my responsibility to ensure that our
troops are brought home not only swiftly, but safely. I've had people
sit-in my office four times during the last few weeks. Four times,
people have come to sit-in in my office. Some come to protest. Some
come to get arrested. All have a right to speak out.

"They want me to vote against the spending bill for the war. Yet, there
is no way that a responsible Senator can vote against spending. There
is no one line item that says 'war, yes or no.' That's not the way the
supplemental works. That's not the way the Defense budget works.
That's not the way our entire budget works. There is no line item vote
that says 'war, yes or no.'

"So, I say to the protesters, I say to those well-intentioned activists,
know we are on your side, but what are you asking us to vote against?
Do you want us to vote against the pay for the Soldiers and for their
spouses and for their children? I won't vote 'no' against their
benefits. What do you want us to vote against? The bullets and what
they need to fight? I won't vote against that. Do you want us to vote
against the body armor and the armored Humvees they need for survival?
I won't vote against that. What about if they are injured? One of the
things that saves lives are the tourniquets on the battlefield. When
they are injured, jet fuel gets the helicopters and the planes from
Baghdad to Germany to Walter Reed and Bethesda.

"We will clean up Walter Reed. We will fix Bethesda. But they have to
get here. When they get here, they need medical care - hats off to
acute care. Now we need outpatient care. Now we need the long-term
care for the 50 years that these men and women will have left. 22,000
people have Purple Hearts in Iraq. More have been injured than we will
ever know, or we will know only years from now.

"I can't vote against funding. To all who are listening, you can sit-in
every single day; you can follow me throughout my Senate career; you can
tail me to my grave. I will not vote to in any way to harm the men and
women in the U.S. military, nor will I cut off the support to their
families. And if you want to picket, you want to protest, you want to
disrupt my life - better my life is disrupted than the lives of these
men and women in uniform. I'm going to support this Reid resolution
because I think it helps bring the war to an honorable end. But, at the
same time, we are going to support our troops. It is time to stop the
finger-pointing and it's time to pinpoint a new way forward."